Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Vikings luck, the trade deadline, and Cousins' accuracy (A Fans Only podcast)

Episode Date: October 15, 2022

Matthew Coller answers fan questions, from whether the Vikings should be considered a lucky team so far, if Kirk Cousins' accuracy should be appreciated with so many bad quarterbacks playing this year, what the Vikings will do at the trade deadline and whether players eat on the sideline. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Purple Insider presented by Liquid Death. Go to liquiddeath.com slash insider and learn about the Tallboy can, which actually has water. Find out where you can get it near you at liquiddeath.com slash insider. Hello, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here. I wanted to get one more episode in before the Vikings play the Dolphins of fans only here

because some of the questions pertain to what's going to happen on Sunday and the immediate future of the Minnesota Vikings. So I thought it would be better served to do another episode before the game. However, there will be several fans only episodes coming next week with the bi-week. So I'm always looking for more questions and feel free to send them purple insider.com or send it to me on Twitter at Matthew Collar through my DMs or just a regular at mention. Just let me know that it's a fans only question. I'll throw it in the file and do my absolute best to get to it. So why don't

we jump right in and I will again, try to keep my answers to around five minutes. So I don't ramble and we can get to as many questions as possible. Lots of good ones for this episode. So we start with TJ via email says, I'm seeing a couple of places where people are saying that the Vikings are four and one because they're getting quote, plenty of luck. I certainly haven't noticed plenty of good luck and was wondering if you could help me understand.

A couple of things to clarify. Amir Smith-Marset's fumble was not luck. He didn't drop the ball. It was ripped out and a great play by Dantzler. The double doink was not luck. It was Lutz's second field goal attempt from 60 plus. NFL kickers make 27% of their field goals from 60 plus. The fact that Lutz made one of two is unlucky for the Vikings, if anything.

And even the Dan Campbell decision to kick the field goal leading to the win against Detroit wasn't much good luck. Sure, it's somewhat lucky that he made the suboptimal decision, but it's not like the decision drastically impacted the odds the Vikings would win. Oh, it definitely did. Yeah, no, I mean, it definitely did. Yeah, no, I mean, it definitely did. If they make the right decision there and they go for it and make it, then you lose the game on the spot. And if they make the second best decision and punt it away, then you have to go the entire length of the field on a day that the offense really wasn't performing that well. And instead you got the best possible outcome was kicking a field goal that even if the field goal went in the Vikings still would have had a good chance to win that game. So Campbell's decision really put it on a silver platter for the Vikings. I look, when you

look at each one of these things, you could say in the broader sense that they weren't unlucky, but I think you can go back in another way and say, Amir Smith Marseille should have stepped out of bounds. It's pretty good luck that he stayed in bounds and then fumbled the football and left the football available for Cam Dantzler to just grab it. The other one was the field goals. And again, you could say, well, the odds aren't high of making 260-yard field goals, but the man was inches away from making 260-yard field goals that it had to bounce literally twice slightly wrong for them to win the game. And if they don't, we're looking at this team, honestly, a little bit differently if those things go the wrong way for them because they're that close to have gone for the wrong way. And also you have to look at the bigger picture of the last three games, which is a one in four Detroit team had you right on the ropes and you needed their coach to completely implode with his decision making really the whole second half where the lions didn't keep the gas pedal down. And there were very odd decisions on fourth downs and everything else throughout.

And they couldn't get one yard on a fourth and one in that game as well. So the lions had to really screw it up to leave the door open for you to win and new Orleans. You were up 16 to seven on them. Couldn't finish them off. Could not go into the end zone when you had opportunities in the red zone. And again, left the door open for New Orleans playing a backup quarterback, a backup wide receiver, backup running back to come back in that game, an inferior team that was beaten up to come back in that game and have a chance to win at the final gun. And really, even you want to get down to the nitty gritty of it, there was a pass by Andy

Dalton that would have set up a much closer field goal. And Chris Alave's foot was just out of bounds. I mean, that's comes down to the game of inches in a game where the Vikings should have run away with it. And the same thing last week that they needed a 17 play drive and a bunch of third down conversions just to beat a Chicago team that put up, what was it? Seven points against the Washington commanders the other night. I mean that Chicago has been an abomination on offense all year long. And Justin Fields has looked like a faster Josh Rosen and against the Vikings in the second half, he instead looks like Cam Newton, uh, in his prime. So, so I think that that's why people are saying that because all three wins

had their reasons for you to go ye kind of escaped with that one, right? Not that the individual play by Cam Dantzler was luck on Dantzler's part. It was a heads-up play. He did the exact right thing. But the fact that the game came down to that is really playing with fire. And that's more of the point here is it's sustainability. If you continue all season long to play this type of football where you're allowing bad teams

to stay in games, like the next couple of weeks here, you've got a quarterback number three in Skylar Thompson. You have an Arizona team that's reeling. You have a Washington team that's flat out awful and their coach is losing it

in press conferences. But if you play the same way and you let those teams hang around, then you might mess around and find out and lose one of those games. Because instead of Amir Smith-Marset being the guy that makes the mistake, it might be your guy. Or instead of one call that doesn't go your way, it might, or that did go your way, it might not go your way. Or Kevin O'Connell might make the mistake at the end of the game with game management call that doesn't go your way, it might, or that did go your way. It might not go your way or,

or Kevin O'Connell might make the mistake at the end of the game with game management. And because it's that close, it could end up being costly. That is the point to calling them lucky. Nobody thinks that you have to give those wins back or that you have to apologize for them. Or at the end of the year, anybody's going to ask, hey, did you get lucky at the end of a game? Oh, I'm sorry. The gates to the playoffs are closed because that was a double doink. And if it's a double doink, it doesn't count.

Nobody thinks that. And I see what you're trying to say with, yeah, they earned it by keeping New Orleans away from field goal range that would have been higher probability, or they make a great clutch defensive play at the end, or they had to finish the drive with a KJ Osborne 28 yard touchdown, which was very impressive. I think that that's the really microscopic view on this. But what you're trying to say when you bring up the luck is more about week after week after week. Can you play this way where every game comes down to the end and have it always go your way?

And the answer is clearly no. I mean, in the last two years have been proof of that, that we've seen the Vikings play many, many close games and some have gone their way and some have not. I mean, and, and the idea that the team likes their coach more. So they are better at getting the other team's coach to screw up a situational thing. Like probably not. Right. Or they're so they're so banding together in the biggest moments that the guy double doinked as opposed to having it doink and go in. I don't know about that. I think it's more of over a long period of time, just like ground balls in baseball when

there used to be ground balls. Some of them bounce through the left side of the infield and some of them go to the shortstop. And if you've had a bunch bounce through the left side of the infield in a row, then you expect that the shortstop will eventually start fielding them. And it's the same way with this, where you expect not to be on the right side of every close tight game. So the point is not that they're bad because they've had these wins, or at least that shouldn't

be the point. I don't think anyone looks at a team that's 10th in scoring and says, oh, they're horrible. They've just gotten lucky. I don't think anybody looks at it that way. You look at the start to the season of Justin Jefferson, you can't say that it's just been all luck. It's been that guy driving the success of the offense. You can say, if you have performances like that on defense and inconsistently on offense, that you're going to have one of these, several of

these, a number in a row go against you. And here's a good example. I mean, in 2020, the Vikings had the beginning of the season, a bunch of close games go against them. I mean, in 2020, the Vikings had the beginning of the season, a bunch of close games go against them. I mean, last year was more talked about, but in 2020, they had the ball with a chance to beat the Titans and lost. They had one yard to go to beat the Seahawks and lost. And then they played a bunch of games after starting one in five that were also close and they got some of those things to go their way.

Green Bay didn't get a flag on something that looked like a pass interference on a throw near Anthony Harris. And remember, you know, they just didn't call a flag. If they did, maybe you lose that game. Joey Sly, who missed the field goal the other night for Washington, missed one for Carolina to win a game at us bank stadium. That would have been a crazy Teddy Bridgewater comeback, but he missed and you, and you got to win. So they kind of, even within that season, those bounces evened out. And I think that's the concern that's being stated is that if the bounces even out and you don't improve in a lot of areas that you're going to

run away from Arizona, you're going to run away from Washington and you're going to create this big cushion for when you play some harder teams. And your aim is to have a great season. It's not to beat Detroit by a final play. It's not to be a lowly, really sad Chicago Bears team at the last minute. That's not the goal for this year. The goal is to be a really, really competitive team. So I think that that kind of explains it well, that I totally get your point. But I feel like you're maybe missing the bigger point of people calling it lucky. And maybe lucky is just like too simple of a word or too easy to misunderstand what it means. Not sustainable is probably the best way to put it for that. So great question, TJ. Really appreciate that. All right. On to Michael via email.

Thanks for the great coverage you provided the Vikings. Thank you. Thank you. Let's see. I look forward to your podcast each day. We're getting closer to the trade deadline. First of all, I'm not sure we have the cap room to make a major trade, but wondering what percentage chance you think a trade will be made and what do you think they do? Yeah. They don't have a whole lot of cap space and by a whole lot, I mean, over the cap.com gives them about 400 and something thousand dollars. So if they were to make a trade of any significance, then they would have to do something else. And I'm not sure at this point where they stand with being able to restructure people. There might be one more trick left in their bag, maybe with either Eric Hendricks or Delvin Cook,

but I don't think you really want to do that, want to have to kick money down the road or make a big restructure. There is always the possibility of them kind of galaxy braining their way to a player for player trade. But at this stage in the game, is that really something you want to do? I don't think that it is because, I mean, even look at Ross Blacklock and Jalen Rager.

It's taken them five games to even really get in and be comfortable. It is one of the reasons that teams don't do this very often. And there's only a couple of positions where you can really do it. Edge rusher is definitely one of them. But like you have to learn a whole new scheme in the middle of a season. That's really tough. A handful of wide receivers have done this. I think Odell Beckham was probably getting the Rams playbook snuck to him.

But even Odell Beckham at the start was having a pretty tough time with the Rams. And then once he got in the rhythm, that helped them a ton when Robert Woods went down. But it just, there's always that learning curve that's pretty big. So not only that, but they also traded draft capital for Jalen Rager already. Do they want to trade more draft capital? I don't know if that is something they want to do. However, I would say that I am less able to predict what they're going to do now than I might've been in the past with a really big sample size of Rick Spielman in charge, because we could kind of put ourselves inside Rick's head and think like, okay, well, they're

probably going to draft a lanky defensive end in the fifth round and tell us he's like Daniil Hunter, right? Like there were some predictable things. Somebody gets hurt in preseason. Oh, Rick's trading a draft pick for a backup tight end for sure. Uh, and there were, you know, good things they did too, that were also fairly predictable, but they followed patterns throughout the years. And we don't know what those patterns are with Kwesi Adafo Mensah. I mean, they could be looking at this and looking at the NFC and saying, all right, we need to find any way possible to add talent to this team because three out of those four wins do have not an asterisk, but some questions left about relatively unconvincing victories. Do you need one more player to help get you over the top?

They probably do. They probably could use a couple other guys at certain positions. I mean, maybe another pass rusher, if they could find one to rotate in. Um, I don't know that Patrick Jones has really made much of an impact. If there's another weapon on offense that you think is going to help you out, if you don't feel like KJ Osborne is fitting as, as well as you expect it or something. Yeah. I mean, like there's things that you might be able to do, but it's really difficult to be able to do that with the cap situation that they have. So yeah. And the other thing is we don't know how they're evaluating the, their players with Mike Zimmer. He was very blunt about how they were evaluating their players. With Mike Zimmer, he was very blunt about how they were

evaluating their players. And still, I don't remember them moving on from a lot of people outside of Yannick Ngakwe. It's just not easy to do in the middle of the season. And I think trying to do it might be a little galaxy brain for me. If you were making some player for player trade or giving up high draft capital, because all of a sudden you're, you're high on winning and you think, oh, this is great. It would really go against what Kweisi said to USA today about giving up the farm to try to really go for it. And his words have actually come to fruition with the Los Angeles Rams this year. Uh, so I w I would lean

toward this team probably just stands Pat and does not try to make a major trade because there's just too many moving parts. But if they do, uh, I guess that will tell us kind of a lot about the mindset of this team and how they're viewing their early success. Next question from Derek via email. Says, I never see or hear anything about in-game nutrition besides the obligatory Gatorade-sponsored cooler on every sideline. Football is not considered an endurance sport, but fatigue does matter in the fourth quarter. Do players ever eat anything on the sideline to keep energy levels high?

I only trust you, Matthew, for this kind of in-depth hard hitting football analysis. Uh, that's a great question. I do know that Mark Sanchez ate a hot dog on the sideline and that Chad Ojo Cinco once, and I think he tweeted about this recently drew on a whiteboard asking a fan to go get him a hot dog and the fan went and got him a hot dog that makes me think that there's not a whole lot of food available on the sideline maybe there's like an energy bar or something i i really to tell you the truth don't know but i think that there's probably a couple of things available during halftime that you can get a little snack if you really need it. But usually these guys are having a big breakfast. They're coming in,

they're playing the game. And then after the game, there's all sorts of snacks and everything else and food available for them right after the game. But I've heard players talk about this before, that there is a long period of time in between when they eat in the morning and they're finally finished with the game. And I'm sure you can scarf something at halftime, but not like any sort of full meal. So yeah, I mean, I guess part of the endurance element is not having a whole heck of a lot to eat. But I don't know that you would want to eat too much, right?

Maybe an energy bar at most, but you don't want to be like scarfing down pizza or something at halftime and then getting a cramp in the second half. I think it's maybe more focused on the hydration element of it. I don't know. Maybe that's what's made Brady so clutch over the years. Maybe that's what's made Brady so clutch over the years. Maybe that's what's making Kirk so clutch if he's sneaking some peanuts or something in the final minutes of the game.

So he's focused. This is the Snickers things. Like he's got a Snickers bar. And so he's focused at the end. But I think in general, they don't eat a whole heck of a lot of food between the start of the game and the end of the game. So I hope that helps. Folks, maybe you've noticed people in your office with what looks like an open tall boy

at their desk in the morning at work. Well, it's not a beer. It's more likely it's a can of liquid death, which sounds pretty crazy at first, but it's simply mountain water from the Alps. It's called liquid death because it will murder your thirst and kill plastic pollution, which does seem aggressive, but that's their mission. And they are donating 10% of profits to help reduce plastic pollution. The problem is that plastic water bottles often aren't recyclable because they're not profitable to

recycle. Whereas aluminum cans can be turned into profit. Liquid death sent me some cases and their water and their sparkling lime are both delicious. And maybe I'll have to start pounding them in front of my friends who know I'm not a drinker just to see their reactions. So go get liquid death at your local target whole foods market or Hy-Vee or find a liquid death retailer near you with their store locator tool at liquid death.com slash insider that's liquid death.com slash insider okay on to the next question this one comes from mitzi via email says i have another fans only question for you before the season started we questioned whether the organization was foolish to not tear everything down for a true rebuild.

But now I'm wondering if they were actually smart and looked at the schedule and thought they could win enough games to make the playoffs or even the division and therefore took the approach that they did. My question is how much do you think the strength of schedule was a factor in their strategy? It had to have been a factor because we knew on the day that the schedule came out that there was not a lot of terrifying teams. And one of the most concerning teams, and maybe I'll look silly for saying this later, uh, but was Miami. And now they're playing their third string quarterback. Like, and that goes back to the luck thing and things going your way. Like if they beat Miami, they will have had to earn the win against Miami, but it certainly is a favorable break for them for Skylar Thompson to be starting. And it's a favorable break that Arizona seems lost and in

disarray and that Washington is just flat out awful. I mean, these, these things have gone their way that, you know, green Bay lost its receivers and then was banged up on the offensive line. And that just was a good break for you. Deandre Swift and Amin Ross, St. Brown got hurt in the lions game. Like, like, but we also should have looked at the schedule and said, these are wins you should get. Like new Orleans is not that tough of a team and the lions weren't that good. And you know, like Chicago was bound to win hardly any football games this year. Yeah. Yeah. I think that it played into it. Uh, I also think that ownership looked at this group and said,

we want to find out just how much was the culture. Just like, let's get a test case, which in small sample size, single seasons, because schedule and bounces and everything else does have so much to do with your success at times. Uh, it is hard to consider it a test case, but I think that that's what they wanted is to say that the players were telling them, all we need is to change X, Y, and Z. And a lot of those things did connect back to Mike Zimmer, not all of them, but a lot of them did. So we, if we change X, Y, and Z under a new coach, we can be a good team that that's what they told ownership. And I think that ownership believed them that they've seen a lot of these players be good before they've seen them go to the NFC championship, go to the

playoffs and win a game in 2019. And I, and I think that they looked at it and said, combine that with the fact that the NFC is a little bit down and that some of the quarterbacks in the NFC, Russell Wilson is now in the AFC and Drew Brees isn't here anymore and so forth, that there is an opportunity to get back to the playoffs if we're even a halfway decent team. I could see them having that conversation. But one of the things that we need to remember correctly about the offseason is I don't think that anyone believed they should tank, right? I think that the strategy was always a real competitive rebuild, which is what Kweisi

Adafo-Mensa brought up and made a lot of sense to me at the moment that he said it, right? Like, okay, so you're trying to win, but you're not doing things like the Rams did to go crazy. You're going to make long-term plays combined with not tearing the roster all the way down. But let's think about some of the things that they decided to do that were not competitive rebuild at all. They were entirely competitive. So they restructured Adam Thielen's deal. And with all the respect to Adam Thielen for his career and as a player and everything else, like I've covered his whole career and have a immense, immense amount of respect for Adam Thielen, but he is averaging under 10 yards a catch right now. And are there other receivers who would not have cost so much and whose contracts would not have been as restrictive in the future

that could have averaged nine and a half yards per catch? I think the answer is probably yes. And when you look at Harrison Smith, for example, again, this is a guy who is an all pro whose entire career or a big chunk of it I've covered and I've seen him be unbelievably good. But the way that they play defense, I don't know that they're even fully using all of Harrison Smith's skills. And was that a position where they could have played similarly with a Josh Metellus with a Cam Bynum? And we would have thought Louis seen and maybe Louis seen from the start or Metellus or someone they signed in free agency for $2 million instead of kicking some of that down the road. So I think that there were moves to be made,

including a quarterback. I mean, if Marcus Mariota is the quarterback of this team right now, what's their record is, I mean, it's either three and two or four and one, right? Like he's even won some games with Atlanta where he hasn't played that great, but Kirk Cousins hasn't played that great. I mean, let's take a look right now where those two kind of sit. And I don't think that, I'm not saying Mariota has been good because his PFF grades are lower than Cousins and his quarterback rating is lower than Cousins. But he hasn't been so horrendous that they couldn't win.

He's averaging seven and a half yards per pass attempt. He's had too many turnover worthy plays, which, you know, is kind of a Marcus Mariota staple. The point just being that, could you still have stayed competitive while not hurting yourself down the road and had a chance to achieve all those same things? I mean, even if you stay with cousins and don't replace them with someone like Mariota, there were different spots on the roster that you had to be able to look at and say, do we really need to have that guy at that price? offers for Daniil Hunter. And it's so far Daniil Hunter has not lived up to what they did to pay him and also the lack of flexibility they have in the future. So I think that's the kind of the point that nobody thought they could tank, they should tank. And if they had traded cousins,

moved on from Thiel and Smith Hunter, I would have still said, I think this team can make the playoffs and I think they can really compete. Now, are we convinced at this moment? And this is why we have to consider what the bar is for them to be right. In my mind, the bar for them to be right about making some bad long-term plays is you are really competitive. Not just in the playoffs, not just the number five seed, seven seed, but you're winning your division, you're winning 11 or 12 games. And now that they're four and one,

I mean, this is on the table, right? With the schedule going forward. So you are really competing to win the NFC. And look, if something goes wrong in the playoffs or you hit the wrong matchup or you have bad luck in the playoffs, okay, that happens all the time. But I think that's where the bar has to be in order to justify all the moves that they made, which weren't exactly bleep them picks like Los Angeles, but also we're not playing both sides. We're not competitive rebuilding. It's a really interesting thing to track from almost week in and week out to where

these bets stand because so far a lot of the bets that they've made have worked out. Like, you know, betting that the offensive line would be better, betting that the schedule would be bad, betting that Justin Jefferson could be the same Justin Jefferson or better and drive this offense kind of by himself at times, bet that they could get just enough on defense, which they have so far, but we'll see if that continues to happen. And those bets are what we're really tracking week to week to week with this team.

It's a great question, though, because that is what we'll always look back to is the decision they made in the offseason. And when Kirk Cousins, I'm going to call it right now, has 117 quarterback rating over the next three games and gets those numbers back up, we probably will be looking at this team and saying, yes, they did make the right decision or we should be over these next three games, which might actually even be just as telling as the tougher games later on. Because if they take care of business here and they blast these bad teams, well, they almost can't be taken down at that point. and the bet will have paid off and they're going to have a great chance at the top of the division, but there is a long

way to go when it comes to that. But going back to that and constantly evaluating what's happening versus their off season decisions, I think is very smart of you. A great question. And something that makes this season like eternally fascinating is they chose their path. Now, is it going to work out? Great question. On to the next one from Tommy, I think T-O-M-Y. Let's see. Fans only question for you.

I'm sitting here watching this terrible Thursday night game. Bears WTF. And yes, I still call them Washington football team because I liked it. I'm with you. I'm sitting here watching this terrible Thursday night game bears WTF. And yes, I still call them Washington football team because I liked it. I'm with you. I am with you. I liked Washington football team. There was no reason to change that. Anyway. Uh, let's see on consecutive drives, Justin Fields overthrew a wide open tight end in the end zone on less than a 10 yard throw. And Carson Wentz says, hold my beer and misses an easy tight end in the flat on a bootleg for an easy first down. Do we think we all need to give Kirk more credit for making passes that he's supposed to make? More credit, I don't know. Because the thing

that's always been said about Kirk Cousins is what? That he is very accurate. He is a great thrower of the football. And even though we haven't seen a lot of gas on that fastball this year, he's still been very accurate with his passes. He's not like all over the place. And like you're saying, he's hitting guys in stride for the most part. The slot fade that he threw to Justin Jefferson, where he just dropped it in the bucket. He is one of the best drop in the bucket throwers, which means just toss it up over somebody's head, let them run underneath it. He was great at doing it with feeling and digs since he got here and he's still really, really good at doing it. I don't think that's ever been a criticism of Kirk cousinsousins. And that's

really what puts him in the top 15 on everybody's list. But the reason he can't crack much higher than that is because of some of the other things about his game, the lack of athleticism, um, the, you know, the, the playmaking out of structure and so forth, like those things, the inability to overcome when the opponent messes with the defense and gives different looks, you know, stuff like that, that has held him back from being one of the considered one of those elite quarterbacks, but his accuracy is really, truly excellent. Uh, you're also comparing him to two of the least accurate quarterbacks in the league. I mean, when you're watching those guys yeah i mean this this is a horrendous year for quarterback play i don't think there's any doubt about that i think the defenses have found some stuff have

really found some stuff this year that is messing with quarterbacks. But those guys, I looked up their passing grades on PFF 19th and 26th, uh, is, uh, Carson Wentz and Justin Fields. You're talking about two of the quarterbacks who are struggling the most to throw the football in the entire league. So yeah, I mean, he's definitely much better than them, but that's, that's what keeps people coming back. I mean, that's what keeps coaches coming back is that they know if a receiver is open and you all have heard the stat by now that every throw cousins made last week completed was to a open receiver, that there was no one close to any of the receivers. He threw the ball to all of last week. That's remarkable. I

mean, that is a real feather in the cap of Kevin O'Connell and also says that the bears are super bad, but I mean, if you give the guy time in the pocket and open receivers, he will hit those guys. The question has always come down to, but what if he doesn't have those things? Then is he making plays? Is he gunning the ball into tight windows? Is he taking enough risks at the right times, which can never quite be balanced out? Like those are the questions, but man, I mean, when you talk about as a technical thrower and how accurate he is. Uh, that is why he's making the money that he's making because there are quarterbacks like Carson Wentz or Justin Fields who are just a mess. And there's so many of them this year. And also that kind of ties into the previous question

of, you know, I mentioned Mariota as an option for who they could have gone and got, uh, if they had traded cousinsousins as somebody short term. I guess Jimmy Garoppolo would have been on the table had they moved Cousins and Garoppolo hadn't been traded. I don't know if I was really on board with that, but Baker Mayfield, that has not worked out at all in Carolina. I think in Minnesota with a much better coach, Justin Jefferson, it probably would have worked

out similarly, or better, similarly to when he was in Cleveland, because you have that kind of offense and not just a complete fool running it like it was in Carolina. So that kind of becomes the question, is like, were they pinned into a bit of a corner where the options weren't that good, and they didn't think they could really be competitive with them. And I tend to think that's another major reason they went the direction they did. Um, but as I, as I pointed out, like you didn't have to, uh, bring everybody back. You could have brought back Kirk and then select few that helped you short and long

term. Um, but I think that what you're describing, a lot of really accurate passes when things are laid out for him, that he's not just missing open receivers all the time, is one of the reasons that they wanted to bring him back and continue to go this direction. Let's see here. Next question from Jackie, an email.

With Troy Aikman's comment about dresses. Do you think that women can be respected by the NFL as a whole, or does it represent an underlying issue that would need to be resolved first? Yeah. I mean, sexism and sports and football has always been a huge problem and it remains a huge problem. And the people who apologized for Aikman remain part of the problem. And Aikman himself admitted that it was a dumb comment. And it just, you know, the people who say that things like that are no big deal are never the ones that are on the wrong side of that, right? They're the ones that are always the ones saying it and want people to apologize for them. So if you were defending Aikman, I would suggest you rethink that. I do believe that there is a lot of progress being made and somebody that I got to know a little bit in Minnesota, who's now

with Denver, Kelly Klein, who has risen up their front office. And you're seeing in the hockey world, some of the great women players and even a former analytics person for the wild is now the Seattle Kraken AGM, I think, which is really impressive. I mean, she was just a very, very impressive analytics mind and she's worked her way up as well. And it's great to see that we're expanding some of these front offices away from the

old boys club to give women opportunities there. But is there still a pervasive element of you don't belong here? Yeah. I mean, I think that that's, that that exists in a lot of different ways, um, that the NFL has tried to make it look like it doesn't, but there was a big story not that long ago about women in organizations and how they've been treated across the NFL. And, you know, you can roll your eyes or you could say who cares or whatever. But I mean, I think that just like with this show, where I think that progress

is being made in the NFL. But I mean, we're also talking about a society that in general has still a major problem with this, with misogyny, with sexism. Uh, and I don't know that it will ever disappear, but I think if you're the NFL, you have to follow the NBA. Now I think the NHL is doing a better job, but they're, they've got some other problems that they need to address. That's a much deeper conversation. The NBA has always been kind of the leader in this and the NFL has only started to come along recently, but the more people that get opportunities, the more people that trailblaze, the better everyone will be for it. So yeah, I mean, you might look at it like, oh, it's just a small comment or whatever

else, but I don't think we should just let casual small comments go when they are offensive and part of a bigger problem. I mean, this is a league that has Daniel Snyder in it. I mean, my gosh, like you read some of the accusations regarding women with him. And how about like the guy with his cheerleaders trying to use them as strippers? I mean, my gosh, like some of the things here, the way that the league has treated sexual assault through the years has been, I think really underwhelming. Um, so there's a lot of things that they can do much better and they can, instead of sitting where society sits, which is probably far behind where we should be in terms of equality, uh, they can lead the way. And I'd like to see them try to do that.

And that should have started with a, with a statement condemning what Aikman said. And I was glad that he admitted that he made a mistake and no one thinks that he should be fired or anything else like that. But you need to say, Hey, I made a mistake there. And we shouldn't use language like that anymore because we want women as coaches. We want women in front offices. Uh, we want the best person to get those jobs and we want every person in the stands to feel like they're all part of this together. Um, so if, if you don't like that, uh, and you don't want women listening to the show or enjoying football or being a part of football, then please don't listen. That's the way I would put it.

Okay, on to Matt via email. Is Irv Smith on his way to earning a second contract with the Vikings? I like him, but I'm not sure that there will be enough money in Minnesota, or if Quasey will value his skills much more than a base-level journeyman tight end. Maybe it's too early to ask this question and it should be shelved. It's never too early to speculate except for on next year's draft. Next year's off season maybe is a little early. Yes, I agree with that. That's kind of my answer is right now it doesn't seem like it's been a great fit for Irv Smith and the offense. It just simply has not. That doesn't mean it will never be because we are still seeing the

transition from a guy that missed a lot of football coming back into it. And I thought the play he made on the final drive to kick that drive off, it was a really good catch over the middle of the field. I think that was a good starting point for him. Now, I don't know how well he's been blocking. Uh, that would be, I mean, I can look up what PFF thinks of it, but you know, they're going to have a, their own idea. It's always been a concern. Like, and if you look at Tyler Higbee, how big Tyler Higbee is, I think that Irvin historically has been okay as a blocker, but when you're tight end one, I mean, you've got a lot of responsibilities as opposed to when he was tight end

two. Um, and you're moving around to different spots and maybe getting more favorable matchups. Uh, but I, I mean, I think that he still can be a solid all around tight end. There's always this question about signing tight ends to a second contract though, because it's such a difficult position that on some occasions you see a team will say, well, we drafted this tight end and he's been a disappointment. And then he goes somewhere else and has success and they go, well, what happened? And just like offensive line, those guys develop slower. And if you're grading Irv's first couple of weeks, it has not been good. But when you consider the tight ends already have a slow development curve and then his was severely set back, you know, it's, it's, it's hard because also, you know, that might end up playing in your favor to get a reasonable contract for him in the future and make a bet there. I think that will be a very

difficult, uh, decision for them to make unless Irv over the rest of the season makes it not difficult, which I could see. I could see him getting much more comfortable in the offense, having some big games and showing kind of the talent we've seen at times from him, but not on a consistent basis, but he would be far from the first tight end to kind of be slow out of the gate and then have everything ultimately work out. But that is definitely under the category of wait and see. All right, this comes from at Chris Clemmick on Twitter. Fans only question, is it possible that the Vikings offense is playing it slow

to keep their wide receivers ready to blow up come playoffs and the playoffs. They can spread out the ball everywhere. No, no, it's not. Uh, no, it's not. Um, no, they're, they are not sandbagging and not throwing to KJ Osborne because they're saving the plays for Osborne for the playoffs. Um, It's a fun theory. Like that would be 40 chess for sure. Like that is the definition of galaxy brain. When I, when I talk about that sometimes, like that's like totally next level, but no,

I, I think what it is is that Kevin O'Connell's offense rises and falls with one guy. And there's a reason for that because he's one of the best players in the whole league. I mean, just the Jefferson at this point is what, like one of the five to seven best players in the entire NFL. You know, I think they look at Adam Thielen is still being good and still being able to track the ball and he's got incredible hands and he can run routes and he's going to understand the offense and so forth, but this is Jefferson's team. Uh, so, I mean, that's the reason a lot of the footballs are going his way. And it also just feels like over these first couple of weeks that they have not been entirely comfortable with how the distribution is supposed to work

and cousins with all of his reads and getting through them. It seems like there's a lot of times where it's first look and then throw to Johnny month or first look and check it down to somebody underneath. Um, and there hasn't been that many opportunities for those other receivers when those come, if they do, I mean, then you're talking about a complete and very dangerous offense, which is why right now, if I'm projecting, I'm projecting this offense to be better than it's been because they haven't gotten those guys going. And yet we know that Smith jr Thielen and KJ Osborne are capable of much more. So I don't think it's saving it for the playoffs so much as needing to find it. And

maybe the bi- week really plays a role in that, or it gets going tomorrow against the dolphins. This one from Vicky tough or Vicky tough on Twitter projecting college to NFL performance is hard, but take a gander at Lance zero lines, take on Justin Jefferson. My favorite is limited one-on-one prowess to win 50-50 throws. Here's the questions. What's your biggest takeaway from the scouting report? And he sent me the link to the scouting report. I understand scouting is hard, but how did the NFL miss out on him so badly?

Yeah, I did a story on this. It was really the slot thing. It was really the slot thing. The 50-50 balls is that's just a bad take because when I watched Jefferson at LSU and I actually had former NFL receiver, Donald Jones watch tape with me on Jefferson when he was coming out, it was actually one of the first purple insider episodes ever way back when like 900 episodes ago, Donald Jones and I were watching Justin Jefferson tape and he was saying like the guy's 50, 50 catches are fantastic. He's got incredibly strong hands.

He just can really rise up like a basketball player. I remember Donald saying this guy must have played basketball the way he kind of rises up and meets the ball at its highest point. So that's a bad take, But the slot thing was real. That teams wondered, why is LSU using him out of the slot all the time? What they missed was, a lot of times receivers who can play outside or the slot and get used a lot in the slot in college, that actually projects better. Because in the NFL, they use guys in the slot all the time. So even though Lance Zierlein does look

like a little old takes exposed there and that he missed way off on Justin Jefferson, if the NFL knew that he was going to be this good and didn't maybe overly focus on one thing being the slot. And, uh, you know, they said that he couldn't win off the line of scrimmage, which we've really seen. I, you know, it's funny because no player is perfect. I still see sometimes, and you saw this in the lions game where Justin Jefferson, because he's so lanky, we'll get kind of tangled up with a corner and not get quite the release when he's the outside receiver that you want him to get. And we've even seen Kevin O'Connell moving him around more these last couple of weeks. And I asked Jefferson, like, what's been the difference?

And he said, I'm moved around more to get free releases. So you can be right about a criticism, but how your team works around it and how you work around it as a player might determine whether you overcome it and become a superstar or not. That, that is why a draft season is super fun for all of us, but you also have to take a lot of the stuff a little bit grain of salt there a lot of times. So anyway, still got a lot of great questions for people. We'll get to a lot of them next week. When we go through all the bi-week stuff, we'll kind of have a bi-week bonanza. You guys want a bi-week bonanza?

You can get a bi-week bonanza. It's been a while. It's been a whole season since we had one. So we'll do that. Appreciate all of you listening. Keep sending your questions. Hopefully I got to a lot of them in this episode. Always super fun.

And we will talk to you all soon.